Kikuo Shimizu started making sushi at the age of sixteen and has been creating traditional-style sushi for fifty-six years. After a brief apprenticeship, he began working in the fashionable Ginza district of Tokyo under his mentor, Shigezo Fujimoto, the legendary "sushi emperor." In 1971, he opened his own restaurant in the city’s Akasaka neighborhood. Shimizu is famous for shunning media attention; until this book, the only way to experience his sushi was to try to get a reservation at his 9-seat counter.
